Koń jako element tradycji szlacheckiej w "Trylogii" Henryka Sienkiewicza (wobec tradycji romantyków i modernistów)

Abstract

The topic of the essay is related to the semantics of the image of the horse (as the most important one among nineteenth-century Sarmatian culturemes) in Sienkiewicz’s vision of the Sarmatian past. Being a representative element of the vividness of the work, it is situated as creative and syncretic in view of the coexistence of the antique, baroque and, in particular, neo-Romantic, positivist and modernistic equestrian tradition. Emphasis is placed on the functionalization of the leitmotif of the horse in Henryk Sienkiewicz’s ‘The Trilogy’ as a signal of ethics and a key to interpret both the global meaning of the work and individual psychology of characters. There is particular reflection upon Sienkiewicz’s view on romanticists recognising indispensability of the motif of the horse in the description of Sarmatian kontush Poland and their ‘organic aesthetics’ which places emphasis on empiricism and realism of the vision of a Sarmatian on a horse as embodiment of his traits of character. By presenting the variety of functions of the motif of the horse, the role of equestrian culturemes in boosting the military character of the plot, the aesthetic conceptualisation of the horse shared by romanticists and modernists, the Amazon-like female characters and the motif of full gallop observed with regard to chivalrous characters was underlined. By creating the climate of an organic national community, the Sarmatians’ life on horseback metonymises the attitude of a citizen-knight-patriot in multiple ways.